It is well known that soft drinks typically comprise a soda or carbonated water base which is sweetened and flavored by an appropriate syrup. It is also well known that only a small portion of such syrups constitute flavoring, with the larger portion, often in excessive of 99 percent by volume, constituting a sweetening medium. Most syrups are nothing more than a combination of sugar and water or, at the very most, an appropriate sweetening agent and water. While so-called diet drinks do not employ a sugar base for the syrup, a sweetener is in fact combined with water and a flavoring agent to achieve the desired result.
It is further well known in the art that the shipping, handling, and storage costs incident to soft drink syrups constitute a major contributor to the cost of soft drinks. Indeed, the soda or carbonated water for soft drinks is typically generated on-site by entraining carbon dioxide in water under pressure. Accordingly, shipping, handling, and storage costs for the soda portion of the soft drink is minimized.
It is well known that only the flavoring component of the sweetening and flavoring syrup for soft drinks is proprietary and available only from limited sources. The remaining portions of the sweetening and flavoring syrup, sugar (or other sweetener) and water, are generally widely available, and are not of a proprietary nature. Accordingly, generation of syrup on-site in a beverage dispenser can greatly reduce the transportation, handling, and storage costs incident to that component of soft drinks.